Admiral George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway, (24 March 1768 – 27 March 1834), styled Lord Garlies between 1773 and 1806, was a British naval commander and politician.
Contents
Background
Garlies was the eldest son of John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway, and Anne, daughter of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet, and attended Westminster School before embarking on a career in the Royal Navy.
Military career
Garlies entered the navy at an early age, serving as a 13-year-old midshipman under the command of his uncle, Commodore Keith Stewart at the Battle of Dogger Bank in August 1781, and also in the Great Siege of Gibraltar in 1782. In 1789 he was promoted to lieutenant, serving in the frigate Aquilon in the Mediterranean. He returned to England in early 1790, when appointed commander of the fire ship Vulcan. He was promoted to post-captain on 30 April 1793, and soon after was appointed to the frigate Winchelsea, serving in the West Indies, and being wounded while covering the landing of the army at Guadaloupe in April 1794, and was then sent with detachments of troops to accept the surrender of the islands of Marie-Galante and La Désirade.